Oil leak....???

[sathu]

Last week I installed an oil catch can so stop the oil vapor from the valve cover getting back into the turbo.

I set the valve hole into one of the can input and the other hole is attach to a breather filter, the small air filter thingy. The throttle is connect to the turbo to bypass the valve cover completely.

After that installation, I took it out for a drive and now I am getting oil leak in the front of the engine where the water bump and pulley is.

At first the water bump was thought to be broken but the coolant level is still the same in the radiator and the tank.

Does anyone know what in the front of the engine can leak oil that drip down to the undercover? I tooked the cover off and took a look and got no freaking clue where it is leaking from, it's a freaking mess of dirt and oil down there to make anyone confuse :dunno: .

I know it oil leak because I took it for a smog check yesterday and it left 2 pile of oil on the shop floor lol and it barely pass the HC part of the test.

So yeah, anyone have any previous experience with this kind of oil leak?

 

[Maroon88]

Check your cam seals, mine were leaking before I redid my head and headgasket. No leak since then.

 

[Supraholic]

You may be building up pressure in the valve covers that cause leak through the cam seals (as Maroon88 indicated). I thought the catch can hookup is as follows: Cam covers - catch can - according hose.. And the connection to the throttle body is blocked off..
Another way: Cam covers - catch can - vent to atm, and block off the connection to the TB.

 

[sathu]

Well I just took it out for a ride and parked it and open the hood and look in the engine bay and saw that the oil might be coming from the main pulley of the engine. Is this where the cam seal is at? What can cause the pressure build up?

The hole in the oil catch can plus is only about 1/8 in wide when I looked inside.

The first setup I had for the can was valve to can-to atm and the other two is blocked off, but my bro say that it is wrong so I did that setup but it doesn't seem to make a different since the the leak came after the can was isntalled. I am thinking that the hole is too small and not enough to vent the pressure quickly to atm when driving pass 2000 rpm. Cause it leak at the smog check when the engine is at 2400 rpm.

I can always take out the plug and widen the hole with my metal drill bits and see if that make a different. But yeah, the leak also happen with the valve to can to atm and the other two block off. My timing belt is in need of replacement since it is 10 old and over 64k.

 

[e90suprat]

Your cam seals are located behind the cam pulleys. You will need to remove the timing belt covers and the cam pulleys to get to them. When they leak, the oil will run down the front of the engine and it will look like it is coming form the main pulley (harmonic balancer). Follow the instructions in the TSRM for replacing the timing belt, but just remove the upper covers. Good luck.

 

[sathu]

How hard would it be to do the job of replacing the timing belt and the seal at the same time? I probably don't have all the special tool for the timing belt job. I got about 500 buck to work with for bringing it to a mechanic. If you do it at home, do you guys pull the engine out and put it on the stand or do you leave it in the car and do the change? Can you also rent the engine jack and stand from local autozone?

 

[Xtreme]

You don't really need any "special" tools at all. And you don't need a floor jack or jackstands to replace the timing belt. just pull your timing cover off, exposing your cam pulleys, unhook the tensioner spring, loosen the tensioner, take the belt off and put the new one on, then put it all back together again. Look in the tsrm (I don't know how to post links) but I think it's posted in General information/reference on page 3 about halfway down (it's sad that I know that!) the tsrm should tell you everything you need to know. -X

Edit: You do need a pulley puller, not very expensive, maybe 20$ at autozone. You are right, you do need to pull the lower timing cover, so a jack would be helpful. Sorry for the mis-info, don't know what I was thinking about when I posted.

 

[sathu]

I read the tsrm and it show that they removed the timing pulley and oil pump pulley, is that even required? You just remove the radiator, fan, other belts, timing cover, and losen the belt tensioner and take it out right?

Cam gear gotta come off for me since I'll be doing the oil seal replacement.

Ok i just check for price and some of them say oil seal w/o dust seal... it just two black seal right? For some reason this stuff need to be order in.

I found the link, thxk for mentioning it. Should be very helpfull in cutting back time. This seal thing gona set me back till next wed when the part come. What brand to you guys use to replace the old cam oil seal, I can get the one in stock at Kragen and it's Chicago Rawhide for 15$, not sure if each or set of two. Other one is FelPro and has to wait for shipping.

 

[sathu]

Ok I remoed all the stuff and now waiting for parts to install. One question about the camshaft oil seal, how do you take it out, I tried to pry it out with the flat head screwdriver but it doesn't seam to come out. I just don't wanna take the valve cover off in order to take those out, that would take another day and there are more problem with valve that I also need to fix, leak valve...

One note on the write up, it better to remove the alt before removing the two 14mm bolt on the back. It much easier than doing it on the bottom of the car.

 

[mrnickleye]

Make a 1/2" hook from a stiff coat hanger. Carefully slip it in...between the rubber seal and cam, twist it 90*, then pull a bit. Then slide it around 1/3 and tug, 1/3 and tug/pull. Walking it out.

Replace carefully by applying motor oil on new seal. Hold in position, and very gently tap edge witha small ballpeen hammer, then 180*, tap, then 180*, then walk it in back and forth, left then right. Small taps.

It will 'seat' into position a little deeper than flush, so when it is flush, take a socket (deep 1/2 is ok, use the 'ratchet' end of the socket on the seal) ...and tap the seal back and forth like you were. You will 'feel' the seal bottom out in postion.

Repeat for other seal. Carquest had the seals in stock for $6 each. Toy dealer did too, $7.

 

[sathu]

I might as well drop by toyota and get them lol, maybe also ask them how much they charge for a complete set of val oil seal that I am thinking of doing if I can't get it out like you say.

Where did you guys get your valve oil seal and snap ring when you replace them .

 

[mrnickleye]

I called around to a couple of parts houses first, then the dealer. Sometimes the parts houses have seals and gaskets in stock and cheaper.
Of course, if your already at the dealer, a couple of bucks more, done shopping.

 

[sathu]

Freaking dealer is super expensive in SJ, they quote me 12$ a piece for the oil seal for the camshaft and the same go for each oil seal for the valve, at 24 valve I'll go bankrupt man... That's freaking 288$ b4 taxes. What are the alternative that I can use? I seen some that go for 12 seal for 18$ or so.

 

[Supraholic]

I thought you are going to replace the cam seals due to the oil leak you see in front of the engine. Then are you also replacing the valve stem seals ? do you have blue smoke when you startup the car? if not, why u replacing the valve seals ? also, replacing those valve seals is no small job.. problem is to get the valve springs out.. no conventional valve spring compressors will do the job.. unless you remove the head from the engine. I tried to replace valve seals while the head is on the engine.. with a tool that I made in-house.. still couldnt do it with reasonable time.. so, I pulled the head out of the car.. that means.. u need to replace the head gasket.. that means you have to re-surface your head by a machine shop.. and so on..

 

[Arther3]

DONT take on replacing those valve stem seals in the car. MAN that is HARD!

 

[sathu]

It's that hard heh. The manual showed you how to removed the valve and they use the SST tool which autozone has for loan. The thing is I get smoke sometime at start up and after idle at light and now sometime after I stop a big amount of smoke come out the end like it was on fire. I read through all the other posts and still yet to determine whether it valve seal, turbo seal or piston seal. After I get my water pump install tomorrow, i'll do the 6k rpm rev test to see if it is valve seal and compression test also. Do you guy know if the store sell the extension for the gauge, my compression gauge isn't long enough to get down to the spark plug hole.

 

[mrnickleye]

Best to go ahead and buy another compression gauge with longer hose at an auto parts store, or sears, or tool outlet. I'm a mechanic for 30 years, and I would not want to do an 'in-the-car' valve seal change on the supra.
If you do, follow the proceedures carefully, and don't mix anything up. It'd be a good time to adjust the valves while your in there.

Check around town for the parts house that the shops use, as they're more likely to have the seals on the shelf, and for less. The machine shop that did my head said they had a set of valve seals for $32 ($1.33 each seal).
Check out the local machine shop that the repair shops use. Repair shops don't want to do rework, so they send there heads to the best place around (for reasonable $$, that is).